Remix
by scarlettHuntress
Summary: Postgame Resurrectionfic. Considering all the things Cloud has done for the planet, wouldn't it be okay for him to ask for a favour in return? Yaoi and Het, SxC, SxZxC, ZxA, SxZxCxA. Others. Standalone epilogue to Mix
1. Chapter 1

_REMIX_

_A/N: The long promised sequel to Mix. However, it can be read alone. How handy!_

_--_

_..._

"So yeah, it's been going pretty good so far," Reeve sighed, exhausted but satisfied. He lazed back in his plush chair. "We haven't hit any major barriers working in sector eleven, where we started, but some of the sectors are more damaged from meteor fall, and we don't know how much we'll be able to salvage or rebuild."

Although three years ago the chairs in this room would have been in the Shinra boardroom straining under the weights of the executives, now it held only exhausted warriors, wanting to get updated as quickly as possible so they could head home for some rest. However, the embrace of the far too comfortable padded chairs held them there for a moment longer.

Reeve looked around the room and took in the faces of his companions. They had all been pushing themselves to the limit these last few weeks, and he could see the strain in their faces. But there was an element of satisfaction there, too. It took a ruthless company like Shinra to create the thing that the world had been, but it took the strong and selfless group in front of him to try to undo the chaos that had been created.

Although everyone felt too tired to do anything apart from sit there and listen to the rhythm that Cloud was tapping out with the end of a cheap pen, Tifa stretched languidly and inquired as to how Marlene's health was to Barret.

This action seemed to remind the group of people that this was the first time they had all managed to convene in one place for a while and a few small conversations started.

Slowly Cloud leaned towards Yuffie, who was lounging in the seat next to him.

"So, I heard you found yourself a new guy?"

"Yeah," Yuffie sighed, "but I broke it off yesterday, actually."

"Oh yeah?" Cloud asked, feigning disinterest. "What, did he try to make you eat your vegetables or something?"

"Oh noo," Yuffie crowed, ignoring the jab and instead fixing the blonde with a coy look. "He wasn't a good boy- quite the opposite. He was into some stuff even too weird for me!"

Cloud snickered, and Tifa (who had overheard) looked slightly scandalized but she smiled wryly. There was A confused expression on Vincent's face, until Cloud leaned over and slapped the him on the back.

"She means in bed, Vinnie!" Cid laughed raucously, even more as a slight flush appeared on Vincent's face.

"You would go around freely telling people about your sex life? Even the idea that you'd jump into bed with someone you barely kno-"

"Is upsetting your delicate sensibilities?" Cid interrupted. "Vin, these are modern times! You were born back when people got married before bumping ugl-"

"I'm not as old as you seem to perceive me as being," Vincent frowned.

"Hey, settle down!" Tifa looked like a mother hen, scanning everyone's faces and although she hadn't heard the clatter of Cloud's pen hit the table or his quiet grunt, she started when she saw the look of pain on the blonde's face, hidden behind his hand.

"Cloud?" she asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"

Cloud looked up, blearily. "Yeah- I just... aah!" he sunk a little lower into his chair, paling.

Conversely, Reeve sat up ramrod straight with a jolt.

"Augh!" he looked frantically at his watch, then glanced back to the blonde with a strange expression of guilt on his face. "The sector three reactor should have just been deactivated. All that mako... Cloud, is that.... can you...?"

Nanaki shifted on the seat he was curled up in. He was well aware of Cloud's predicament, but by the dawning looks on some of his human friends' faces and the blank look on others', it was a concept they were still grasping.

Shrugging off Reeves stuttered apologies, Cloud attempted to straighten in his chair again. "Dun worry..." Cloud muttered thickly. "I- I can deal with it. Vincent, could you give me a hand...?"

Rising, Vincent draped the blonde's arm over his shoulder and gently eased him up. "To the medical bay?"

"Mmm." Cloud breathed out, glad for his support. "Morphine... or a Sleep, both sound pretty good right now..."

"Hey guys…" Cloud addressed the worried members of AVALANCHE, half of them looking ready to spring out of their seats. "Don't look so worried, it's not like I've got Mako sickness or anything. B-besides, this is a good thing,"

Tifa frowned at that statement as she had frowned at the bags under Cloud's eyes earlier in the evening, but said nothing as Vincent escorted him out of the room.

The meeting broke in an uneasy silence.

---

The needle pierced his skin and with a practiced ease Cloud slowly depressed the plunger. Both he and Vincent looked away as the fluid emptied into Cloud's veins.

"I thought pain killer didn't work effectively?" Vincent enquired softly. "It never seemed to work for me after I was woken."

"This one Reeve had custom made for me," Cloud murmured, sliding the needle out again and capping it. "One of those new-age drugs, it'd probably knock out an elephant. I can't pronounce the damn thing's name, but it helps at least."

"Surely you would object to such gratuitous use of drugs?" Vincent enquired, thinking briefly of his memories of being injected with dozens upon dozens of mysterious cocktails, knowing that Cloud had shared the same experience.

"Anything to stop the feeling that the planet just dropped that accursed reactor on my head, really," Cloud replied with a shrewd smile, trying to settle on the thin mattress.

"So... what you are feeling is definitely related to the movement of the lifestream?"

"Yeah... I know you're skeptical, Vincent, but between all my dips in Mako and Lifestream alike the planet seems to have claimed me as an extension of the lifesteam."

"...Then, your connection to the planet? They turned you into a cetra, Cloud?" Vincent breathed, no little note of incredulity in his voice.

"More like a battery, really."

"That sounds... ridiculous."

"I know. I mean, I sound like a hippie, right? But I can feel it. I can feel the Planet, and the lifestream in every living thing. Open your hand, Vincent."

Vincent lifted his closed fist, and gave Cloud a confused look. He opened his hand, and watched bemusedly as a very confused beetle flew out.

A moment passed. Finally, Vincent sighed. "I guess I've seen enough impossible things in my life. And Reeve seems to believe you at any rate; prone to whimsy as he is, he's also an engineer. He tends to believe in things he sees."

He looked at the blonde's slightly dilated pupils. Cloud's eyes were an amazingly bright blue that seemed to pierce through Vincent's own eyes even in his slightly stoned state.

"So tell me then, oh extension of the planet, why does the lifestream hurt so?"

"All of the reactors are being decommissioned," Cloud sighed. "That's a great thing, but all the processed mako is just gushing back down into the raw lifestream. It's like...." Cloud searched for a suitable metaphor for a second. "Like, ever tried to put something back into the original wrappings, and you can never get it to fit? It's just not... not _fitting _right now. The planet just doesn't know what to do with all this lifestream, since Shinra had kept it apart for so long. It'll settle down eventually, but for now it's just churning around and... urgh....." Cloud stared at the blank white wall, and reached out to lovingly stroke it, to Vincent's amusement.

"Right now it just feels like my head is splitting apart, and it's not very pleasant as you could probably imagine...." Cloud sighed. He started a little when Vincent gently applied a wet flannel to his head.

"Aah, thank you..."

"So, there's all this lifestream sloshing around and nowhere for it to go?" Vincent inquired, watching the blonde rearrange the flannel with slender fingers.

"Yeah, the planet doesn't know what to do with it all, really...."

"Well, why don't you make a suggestion then?

Staring up at the roof, Cloud froze.

--

_So I have a little more than a half of this whole thing written up, but It needs some pretty serious editing before it's readable. For now, I just wanted to get something out there. Hopefully this won't take me too long, huh? :D There'll probably be about two or three more parts. I want to finish this before the end of the year, if I can._


	2. Chapter 2

REMIX Chapter 2 of 3

_It took a while coming, sorry guys. Hopefully this is satisfying enough that you won't kill me. _

_--_

Like a silken curtain, the mist of consciousness parted before him as he walked further into the lifestream. Here the presence of the planet hung heavily in the air- the fog itself was incredibly dense, and if he looked behind him he would see no sign of the place he had entered from, only a solid wall of lifestream. But the cloying, caressing tendrils of green didn't bother him- he was welcome here. He ignored the heaviness settling on his shoulders and instinctively walked the path that led him straight to-

"...hey," she said, soft spoken as ever.

"Hey," he echoed back, hesitantly moving closer.

"It's been a while since I saw you last, Cloud..."

"Sorry," he half-whispered, hardly daring to look at her. "It took me a while to come to terms with everything, I guess... It took me a while to be able to come here." He took a deep breath. "Thank you for everything, Aeris. And... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything I di-"

"Don't be sorry, silly...." Aeris told him, touching his cheek gently. "You did wonderfully, I'm so proud of you, Cloud. And thank you. Really."

He gingerly wrapped his arms around her waist, but Aeris lunged in and held him tightly. They remained like that for a while before they drew apart slowly.

"Do you know why I'm here?" Cloud asked, looking a little more relaxed.

"Of course, you're a part of us Cloud, we always know what you're thinking," Aeris told him with a smile.

"Uh..." Cloud said, a slight blush tinting his face. "You know everything I think? Isn't that a bit..."

Aeris pinched him on the cheek, giggling. "We don't spy on you, silly!"

"Then what do y-"

"Never mind that!" Aeris said abruptly. "Aren't you going to ask me?"

"Would you let me?"

"We've been waiting," Aeris said, an almost wistful smile on her face. "We've been waiting quite a while, Cloud."

"A-aeris. Can I?"

"I told you, didn't I?" Aeris said, her eyes sparkling with a gentle cheekiness. "We've been waiting for you."

"I-"

The fog around them warped suddenly- shifting to give way to two forms.

Two figures that Cloud had not seen- at least not like this, healthy and sane, for a long time.

"I-" Cloud choked, looking at them with wide eyes.

One of the figures grinned, cheeky as ever, and extended a hand to Cloud. The other looked on, a slight smile on his face.

"It's been a while, spikey"

"Yeah," Cloud gasped out, a delighted smile finally appearing on his face. "Way too long."

--

"But you?"

"Yeah."

"And it's all-"

"Yeah."

"But the-"

"Yep."

"And-"

"Reeve?"

Reeve sighed and collapsed back into his chair.

"Sorry, I'm just no good at accepting weird stuff like this- you know, like, erm- resurrections and," his voice raised a few pitches, edging on the slightly hysterical of someone overworked, "resurrections of an insane psycho who destroyed the city we're rebuilding!"

Cloud tapped his fingers impatiently on Reeve's desk. "But Jenova's dead now, Sephiroth will just be a normal sane man without her."

"Yeah," Reeve grumbled, rubbing at his temple. "A normal guy with superhuman powers! And that Zack guy, he was a SOLDIER too!"

"Can I remind you I joined ShinRa with the intention of becoming a SOLDIER?" Cloud said calmly. "Vin and I are artificially enhanced too. Anyway, can you imagine how handy they'd be with rebuilding the city?"

"You make it sound like you're on steroids or something," Reeve grumbled, collapsing further into his chair. "Okay, fine- the planet is going to spit up two dead guys, and you wanted to let me know. Thanks. Now, what is it that you wanted from me?"

Cloud fidgeted. "Well, they're going to be releasing them through a natural spring near Mideel. The location is one that affects the wildlife the least, and is far away from any humans."

"But what's the closest place like that? Mideel is an island, after all- all that's around it is ocean!"

Cloud fixed him with a piercing stare, bright blue eyes glowing. "I did say I needed your help, Reeve."

"Oh, Jeez." Reeve sighed. "This just keeps getting better and better."

--

Slumbering deep inside the planet's heart was like being wrapped in the softest, warmest blanket, or like a mother's embrace. They spent the time curled up inside the lifestream, listening to the whispers of the others around them, or the movements on the planet's surface. Occasionally they would surface for moments of lucidity for proper conversations with Aeris or when people they knew first entered the lifestream after death, before they were absorbed into the collective consciousness, but normally they just talked and listened through thoughts and emotions.

The reason for their instinctive unwillingness to abandon the thought of their human forms became more clear to them when they reached out to Cloud and felt his need, his longing to have them back. Aeris, too, expressed that they obviously felt they were not yet ready to let go, and in characteristic fashion the entity that was Zack made a crack that they were like some type of ghost in a horror film, with 'unfinished business'.

And so, they waited. Finally, that day was upon them. Aeris's mental touch was gentle as she guided the two beings through the lifestream. They travelled upon the currents of the lifestream until they came to a place where it pressed against the world, lifestream slowly filtering out to eventually return, as all the lifestream did. Here it was colder, and more turbulent than the warm, safe enclose of the planet.

_Is this it?_ The one that was Zack thought, spinning excitedly in the currents. The other said nothing, but extruded a sense of nervousness to the others.

Aeris whispered a sense of calm to both of them, reaching out to open the way into the world. _Are you ready? _

_Y-yeah!_ Zackbeing replied, suddenly as nervous as Sephiroth's entity. _Wait, are you coming too?_

_Of course! _She told them. _I couldn't have you all having fun without me, could I? In any case, the rules have changed a little... they're happy for me to go back if I want to. And besides, I need to make sure the Cetra race continues, don't I? _She smiled cheekily in a way that would have made Zack blush if he had a body.

_Okay, so let's go! _

_Wait, how does this work, exactly?_

_Well, I'm not really sure, we've never tried something like this before..._

_W-what?_

_It's fine, Cloud'll look after us! _

_Are you sureeeauuugh!_

And with that, they plunged into the black.

--

One would think that having your body regenerated from nothing would be painful, but the pain was flushed out with the sensation of being suddenly immersed in the incredibly icy cold of the ocean, in the pitch black of night. A million new cells were stunned into immediate numbness as the current pulled them around like puppets. It took Zack a few moments to react, before he reached an arm- _An arm! He had arms again! He had a body! It felt so _good _to have a body again_! – in front of him, reaching out for anything. But nothing met his fingers but more of the same icy cold water. He struggled in the direction he thought was up for what felt like an eternity, finally breaking the surface. He tried looking around but something amazingly bright shined directly into his eyes, and he was pushed under again by the rough waves. The bright light shone in a beam down into the ocean's depths, highlighting silvery tentacles slightly below him, which he realized was attached to a body. _Oh_, he thought idly. It occurred to him that he should try to look for Aeris, but he was finding it hard to think for some reason. Actually, all he really wanted to do was sleep. It felt like he'd been here forever, fighting against the ocean. Zack felt himself slowly drifting off, lulled to sleep in the rhythm of the ocean. He could just stay here forever...

What seemed like an eternity later something grabbed him, latching onto his forearm with a steel grip. Zack hardly struggled as he was pulled up through the water, bumping against something large and warm in the water. _A body?_ He thought tiredly, wondering who it could be fighting against the immense strength of the ocean. He felt himself being hoisted and eventually deposited on a cold, hard floor. The wind whipped against his wet skin, but even as someone called his name Zack's eyes drifted shut.

--

That's all for now! Sorry about the long wait, but maybe if I get a couple more reviews the next chapter will be much quicker! And reviews are also delicious and love! Anyway, I wish everyone a happy 2010! Much love, Rafira! Rafira . livejournal . com

Thanks always to my lovely Beta, Kazuhiko! I don't know why she's still stuck with me :P


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